In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

So said Dwight Eisenhower, a career soldier and five-star general, now giving his Farewell Address as President.

The founders had concerns about standing armies. Those who say they would die for the Second Amendment, can probably cite it by heart,

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

The concept is Militia. The suggestion is that the United States will not be one where there is a standing army.

In the next Amendment, the Third, we read,

No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

Such a quaint Amendment - visions of soldiers sleeping in junior's room and helping themselves to cornflakes and coffee in the morning, but maybe it meant more. Maybe Eisenhower's Farewell address touched its heart, in part, when Ike spoke about the military-industrial complex,

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

Was it the intent of the Founders simply to keep soldiers off their plantations? If so, the Third Amendment survives as an odd duck - one of the few Constitution Amendments that is completely obsolete and out of step.

Again to Eisenhower's Farewell Address and it reminds me of the juncture of the Second and Third Amendments,

Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.

Are "troops" indeed now "quartered" in our midst?

Quartered or not. Third Amendment or not, Eisenhower continued,

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

New in the American experience. Was it part of the original intent of the Founders?

Certainly the United States Constitution can trace its roots to the Declaration of Independence where original intent must now be teased. It has long been argued the Declaration and Constitution ought not to be conflated, but add original intent to the equation, and a historic trail of breadcrumbs seems almost inevitable.

What did the Frames write and what concerns did the signers of the Declaration agree caused them to split with the Mother Country?

Among those that concern these two Amendments and current events, here's what George was accused of

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offenses:

Has this not happened to some native-born Americans? That it happened in the past, for example to the Japanese under FDR, is hardly justification when it has been so thoroughly repudiated by subsequent generations.

Transporting people to secret prisons, across the sea, to be put in the hands of foreign powers rather than being brought to trial in the United States, is quite unAmerican - at least at what is the best in the spirit of America.